Sponsored by:
Assemblyman HAROLD "HAL" J. WIRTHS
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
Assemblyman PARKER SPACE
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
SYNOPSIS
Amends Fiscal Year 2023 annual appropriations act to prohibit use of appropriated moneys for, or to support, certain State litigation related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act amending the Fiscal Year 2023 annual appropriations act, P.L.2022, c.49.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The following general language provision is added to P.L.2022, c.49, the Fiscal Year 2023 State annual appropriations act:
104. Notwithstanding the provisions of any law, rule, or regulation to the contrary, no amounts appropriated herein to the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Law and Public Safety, or any other State department or agency, shall be used, in any manner, to pursue or support litigation brought against an entity in the coal, natural gas, or petroleum products industries, or against an individual representative of any such entity, which litigation asserts a cause of action, including, but not limited to, a cause of action seeking remedy for negligence, a failure to warn, impairment of the public trust, trespass, public nuisance, or consumer fraud, based on the allegation that the business activities being undertaken by the entity or individual in the State have caused or exacerbated climate change or one or more specific public harms allegedly resulting from, or associated with, climate change, including, but not limited to, harms to the State or its residents that have allegedly resulted from the emission of greenhouse gases or co-pollutants in the fossil fuel industries.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would amend the Fiscal Year 2023 annual appropriations act to prohibit the use of appropriated funds for, or to support, certain State litigation that seeks relief for climate change-related harms allegedly caused by fossil fuel industries. Specifically, the bill would provide that, notwithstanding any other law, rule, or regulation to the contrary, no amounts appropriated, under the FY 2023 annual appropriations act, to the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Law and Public Safety, or any other State department or agency, may be used, in any manner, to pursue or support litigation brought against an entity in the coal, natural gas, or petroleum products industries (the fossil fuel industries), or against an individual representative of any such entity, which litigation asserts a cause of action, including, but not limited to, a cause of action seeking remedy for negligence, a failure to warn, impairment of the public trust, trespass, public nuisance, or consumer fraud, based on the allegation that the business activities being undertaken by the entity or individual in the State have caused or exacerbated climate change or one or more specific public harms allegedly resulting from, or associated with, climate change, including, but not limited to, harms to the State or its residents that have allegedly resulted from the emission of greenhouse gases or co-pollutants in the fossil fuel industries.
Although there may be a correlation between climate change and the activities and emissions of fossil fuel industries, it is well established that correlation is not equivalent to, and is not sufficient to prove, “but for” causation. Because there is no definitive evidence establishing a “but for” causation link between the activities and emissions of fossil fuel industries and the subsequent development or exacerbation of climate change, and because there is ongoing scientific debate as to whether, how, and the extent to which, the State and the public may be harmed as a direct result of climate change, it is impossible to say, with any certainty, that fossil fuel industries should be held liable for climate change or for any specific harms allegedly related thereto. Consequently, until a “but for” causation link is definitively established between the activities of the fossil fuel industries and climate change, it is inappropriate for State funds to be used to finance litigation seeking to financially penalize, or to otherwise punish, fossil fuel industries or their individual representatives for climate change-related harms being suffered by the State or its residents.